Non-collegiate women’s board lowers cutoffs by 10%

NEW DELHI: The cutoffs this year for Non Collegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB) have fallen steeply in both the offered courses — BA (programme) and B Com (programme). Last year, while the highest cutoff was 88% at Miranda House and Hansraj colleges, this year the highest has been pegged at 78%, marking a 10% point drop. According to NCWEB director Anju Gupta, the cutoffs this year have been kept low and more in tune with what was pegged in the second list last year, to retain students. “Last year, when the cutoffs were high, we saw many students leaving for regular colleges. This year’s cut-off is closer to what we had in the second list last year, at a more realistic level,” she said.

The highest cutoff for BA (P) this year is at Hansraj and Miranda at 78%, while the lowest has been at Aditi Mahavidyala at 72%. For BCom (P), the highest has again been recorded by Hansraj and Miranda House at 85% each and the lowest has been recorded by Aditi Mahavidyala at 77%. Last year, BCom (P) had reached the highest of 90% and lowest of 84% in the first list. According to Gupta, NCWEB has received nearly 1.5 lakh applications this year, “though only a part of these are actually residents of Delhi”. This year, all women applicants were able to select courses under NCWEB, irrespective of their residence. According to DU admission officials, this has been done to caste a wider net among applicants. “Last year, we had several students who were residents of Delhi but studied from NCR schools. They did not know about the eligibility criterion and could not apply even if they wanted to later,” said an official. “We want to make sure they all have an opportunity this year,” the official added.

The NCWEB is an alternate system offered by the Delhi University only for women residents of Delhi, offering classes in BA (P) and BCom (P) on weekends at 26 centres. These centres have been spread across the capital, and include colleges like Miranda House, Jesus and Mary College, Hansraj, Maitreyi, Mata Sundri, among others. According to registrar Tarun Das, NCWEB has nearly 26,000 candidates enrolled with the non-collegiate board at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The admissions to the various centres of NCWEB take place on the basis of merit by those who clear the cut-offs. The board has also tied up with National Skill Development Centre and students are regularly trained in skill courses like hospital bill calculation, online retail etc.